George Washington Carver was born in Missouri. The actual date of his birth is not known. It is somewhere between 1861 and 1864. He was born a slave and became a free man in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. He loved learning but was not allowed to go to school close by. At that time, the black children and white children did not go to the same schools. Schools were segregated.
The school that he could go to was far from his house. He left his family and went away to school. He was a good student. George finished high school. He wanted to go on to college. Again, he had a problem with not being able to go to school because of his race.
George did go to college. He had to work and borrow money to attend. He took classes in art and music. One of his teachers told him that he needed to study about plants, so he went into the field of botany. He went to a college for
agriculture. Mr. Washington graduated and taught others. He continued his studies in botany and became well known.
agriculture. Mr. Washington graduated and taught others. He continued his studies in botany and became well known.
Later he taught at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for 47 years.He was an important research scientist. He found 100 new ways to use peanuts, too! George is known for his work with peanuts in experiments on using them in dyes, plastics, paint, and even make-up.
He was proud of his accomplishments in teaching farmers better ways to use the soil, plant and cultivate their farms. Most southern farmers worked soil that had been depleted of minerals needed for healthy plant growth. The farmers had planted the same thing in their fields year after year and the soil was no longer good for producing money making crops. He and his fellow scientists showed them crop rotation to help replenish the soil.
After his death in 1943, George Washington Carver had a national monument named after him, a ship, a submarine, was named to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans and admitted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990. He is known world-wide for his work and accomplishments.
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